zagreb abstract

PHOTOPOETICS - READINGS OF THE WORLD
The work of Eva Maria Schild and Lana Land might be classified as poetography
or photopainting: urban spaces turn into canvas, projection screens for
human outburst. Images have been randomly scratched, scarified and painted,
with the exception of two ‘ja‘, an ‘amen‘ or the fragments of an ‘a‘ dating from
the 50s/60s. 1 Impulsive and anonymous creations discovered by Sršen and
Schild differ from the intentional murals of graffiti artists which mainly
convey targeted messages. ‘Zagreb abstract‘ not only shows the legacies of
human action but also gives a perspective on the ways matter changes over
time.
Processes of bleaching, rusting and peeling have all left abstract
paintings which bear witness to skinnings, grazing and injuries. Layers
are laid bare, without recourse to the restorer’s scalpel. Carmine peers
out from beneath anthracite coatings. Rust has eaten its way deep into
a blue background. Walls are peeling: layers of paint are flaking off
in shreds. One is inclined to tear them down even further. The portrait
of a desquamating billboard documents this process of demolition and
replacement. 2
I titled a chapter in one of my books ‘Gentle Ways of Reading‘, 3 the sense
of which is splendidly reflected in Rainer Maria Rilke’s description
of a Parisian firewall. ‘What was most unforgettable, though, were the
walls themselves. The dogged life that had been lived in these rooms
refused to be obliterated. It was still there; it clung to the nails that
were left, it lingered on the remaining strip of floor-boarding, it was
huddled up under the little that was left of a corner section. You could
see in the paintwork how, slowly, year by year, it had changed blue into
a mildewy green, green into grey, and yellow into an old, stagnant, putrefying
white‘. 4
This type of reading may also be applied to ‘Zagreb abstract‘: the narrative
of dead matter. Attention is drawn to the smallest elements. ‘In a city
the small, empty and the open, are that which allows us to energetically
recharge and which protects us against the predominance of the large,‘
Wim Wenders notes. 5 In this sense the photographs shown in the book can
also be interpreted as a protest against things big and noisy. They call
on us to open ourselves to a world beyond aggressive advertisements
and media overkill.
The processes of discovery and photographic capturing bring about the
appearance of compositions ‘you compose almost the same moment as you
press the shutter-button‘, 6 Henri Cartier-Bresson notes. Here the camera’s
objectivity meets the subjectivity of the photographer. ‘Composition is
the result of simultaneous coalition‘, 7 Cartier-Bresson continues. The
eye carves out a niche, its decision is solidified on film. Authors follow
this same rule. Cartier-Bresson’s assertion that ‘for me photography is
the exploration in reality of the rhythm of surfaces, lines or values‘, 8
is valid for the present work. However, the reality of the so called
‘inconspicuous‘, as portrayed in the photographs, is by no means limited to
urban environments only. Harbours, industrial landscapes and dead technology
in general are excellent collection-sites for poetography or photopainting
as practised by Schild and Land.
The experienced eye may draw comparisons with Lucio Fontana’s perforated
and slashed canvas ‘Bucchi e Taglie‘. Clearly, the elevated triangles
point to the houses of Paul Klee, as do the fine lines on a blue rust
coated surface. Marc Chagall’s chicken may also be envisaged as well as
balls of wool and tangled, blue and beige yarn. Ways of interpreting are
limitless. Sometimes, the motives support the photopaintings by presenting
themselves in a way that is already framed. Taken together, a spectrum
of photopoetics unfolds, which stimulates new ways of reading. Schild
and Land visualize what Rilke put into words and what Wenders plead for.
Franziska Bollerey
1 Cf. I.a.: Kehrer, Martin Ulrich: Stadt Alphabet Barcelona, Wien 2013
2 Cf.: Affiches&Grafitti. In: Sawyer, Erroll: City Mosaics, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 21-57
3 Bollerey, Franziska: Mythos Metropolis. Myth Metropolis, Berlin 2006
4 Rilke, Rainer Maria: Schriften in Prosa. Zweiter Teil. Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge,
Leipzig 1930, p. 58
5 Wenders, Wim: The act of seeing. Essays, Reden, Gespräche, Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 124
6 Cartier-Bresson, Henri: Über das Photographieren. In: „Du“, june 6th 1958, p. 56
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.